Things could be worse! - Impressions #17

Things could be worse!

It's the weekend. I've got my cup of tea and some shortbread. I'm thinking about the next painting I'm going to do. I'll start sketching tonight. The sketch in the photo is from one of my recent paintings, just there to illustrate my thoughts for today. I think I'll do a painting of Kenwood House in Hampstead, overlooking the heath. I'm going to work a pond into the picture, and some venerable old trees.

Meanwhile...



Outside my closed windows the rest of the city immerses itself in the "holy month" of Ramadan, which started a few days ago. This is the month when everybody tries especially hard to be good. The muezzin sing especially loudly, and for longer periods. Nobody eats during the day time, then they gorge at night.

I stuck my camera out the window to catch the sounds floating over the city, a couple of dueling muezzin mixed with the buzz of a hundred air conditioners and the ubiquitous honking car.

Battle of the Muezzin - Impressions #14

Since the dawn of time (or at least, the ready availability of sound amplification technology) the Muezzin of the great desert kingdom have engaged in daily aural battles, challenging each other, competing to sing the praises of the Almighty, battling to stir in the hearts of the people feelings of awe and humility.



Walking through the streets of Riyadh, you are never more than a few blocks from a "Friday Mosque". Planning guidelines for new developments recommend that no house should be more than 500 meters, 1/4 mile, from a mosque. You should always be walking distance from one. There will be several in the project I am working on.

Anyhow, though they all sing the same words, each Muezzin has his own unique style of singing. Some are more florid, others somber. Nowadays, with every mosque having amazing sound amplification technology, you can easily hear 3 or 4 muezzin, in 3 or 4 different mosques, all singing at the same time. I'm sure all their amplifiers go up to 11. They certainly max them out.

I took this little video this evening as I was walking home from the supermarket. I happened to pass this intersection just as they got going. I could see the minaret of one of the mosques, but the other, the opposite direction down the street, was hidden by some trees.